


The Most Complicated of Minds

by MoonSilverSprite



Series: Human Monsters [4]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Books, Episode: s03e08 Lucky, Episode: s04e13 Bloodline, Episode: s04e21 A Shade of Gray, Episode: s05e16 Mosley Lane, Episode: s07e02 Proof, Episode: s07e18 Foundation, POV Outsider, Writers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:07:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23382055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonSilverSprite/pseuds/MoonSilverSprite
Summary: David Rossi's new book details the biographies of some of the facts that only came to light in the investigations after a case was closed. He talks about some of the most brutal kidnappers and murderers he has ever come across.Killers that might have had more victims. Kidnapped children that are still out there and need to come home. Families needing closure. Here he talks about what happened after the BAU team had left an investigation.
Series: Human Monsters [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1512821
Comments: 7
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jetplane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jetplane/gifts), [evave2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/evave2/gifts), [DeborahSEllis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeborahSEllis/gifts).



> Well here's to a summer stuck in my bedroom.
> 
> I haven't finished my _Law & Order: Special Victims Unit_ and _Supernatural_ crossover since I am still in the process of working everything out, but if I manage to finish the first chapter I will place it up before the rest of my work.
> 
> If the vocabulary in this story might appear to be complex, this is how many true crime books are structured. I wanted to appear convincing enough.

Foreword by David Rossi

These cases in this book are those that I have personally worked on. Sometimes all of the facts are not clear at the end of a preliminary investigation. Therefore, further research is required.

While I may not have been on the scene to arrest some of these perpetrators, nor was I involved in the FBI search by interviewing survivors or working out how many other victims each of these killers might have had, I was called to the initial searches where the UnSub – the killer/s – was identified by my team.

I have also divulged into the minds of the deceased criminals, as helpful as it would have been to interrogate them whilst they were still alive. It is an unfortunate turn of events that these cases ended up this way. Some of the killers were already dead before we caught onto them, having escaped the law of the people. In these situations, I can only guess. But what I did guess may well have been accurate.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of the information regarding the Roycewoods prior to 1999 and the dates of the victims' murders are mainly my own creation.
> 
> Anita Roycewood was the first female criminal that I have seen in fiction who I wanted to have a taste of her own medicine and throw into a furnace. If I had been in charge of the episode, I would have let more of the children survive - possibly the ones taken after 2006. But I understand that directing a lot of child actors is quite a challenge and the three who were picked did an excellent job.
> 
> Perhaps because only three children are rescued is why I decided to let five of the child hostages in my story 'The Girl in the Blue Hoodie' survive.

Anita and Roger Roycewood

Anita Roycewood was a very interesting woman, albeit also one who seems vile and repugnant. Not very much is known about her, so I will share all of what I know about this killing couple.

On March 2nd 2010, eight-year-old Aimee Lynch was kidnapped at a winter festival in Ashburn, Virginia. With some helpful information provided by the mother of Charlie Hillridge (an eight-year-old who had vanished a day shy of eight years prior to that date), we managed to recover not only Aimee but two more children.

Charlie Hillridge’s mother was certain that she had seen her son sometime in the spring of 2007. She had seen him across a street and instantly recognized him, despite the time difference. The woman kept this to herself until the day Aimee had disappeared. And for good reason; her husband had left her due to stress caused by Charlie’s abduction. This is not unexpected for families with a missing or a murdered child. Couples tend to blame each other for what has happened to their lost one.

By evening on March 3rd 2010, we had identified the killers. Unfortunately the female, Anita Roycewood, 55, had been shot by Charlie in self-defense as she tried to kill him, Aimee and twelve-year-old Mae Hall. Her husband, Roger, also 55, hung himself in the bathroom while supposedly under the watch of FBI officials.

Anita and Roger had been abducting children from public places for eleven years. Anita would pretend to panic in a crowd at a fair, mall, parade or other such busy place with a lot of children. She would say that her child was lost. As this went on, Roger would snatch the child the two had had their eye on and take them to the van, where they would sedate their victim. The twelve victims were Caucasian boys and girls, all taken between the ages of six and nine.

The hostages would be held prisoner in the basement under the couple’s home for a matter of months or years, whether Anita found the children to her liking or not. If she found too them difficult to control or they reached puberty (roughly between the ages of 12 and 14), she would sedate them and take them to her family’s crematorium. There she would place the sleeping child in a coffin, burn them into ashes and then give the ashes to Roger so that he could scatter them on his rosebushes.

However, we considered the case to be a success. Three children had been found alive. Nine other families were given closure to what had happened to their loved ones. These cases could now be closed. Unlike other serial killers and missing persons, we were certain that they had killed no other victims, as Charlie had documented their progress in secret.

Roger and Anita met in 1974 at the age of nineteen and moved into Anita’s family home on Mosley Lane two years later. Roger was an electrician and Anita worked at her family’s funeral business.

Anita’s childhood seems fairly normal. She grew up under a strict regime, with the children being beaten if they caused the slightest misdeed. She had one sister and three brothers, all of whom moved away and seemingly lost contact over the decades. Anita’s parents ran a household akin to many others in the Forties and Fifties – which I believe later manifested itself in Anita’s dress sense as an adult.

One possible reason for Anita’s dislike of her siblings may have been that they all had families of their own, ranging from two to six children each. However, none of the children have clear memories of their aunt and seem to think of her as a loud, bossy woman who wanted her own way.

Anita also isolated Roger from his own family; his only living kin, his younger brother, commented that from 1976 until 1999 – when their first victim was abducted – Roger only came to visit him in Maine twenty times. On average this amounts to less than once a year. The visits also became shorter and shorter and Roger always appeared in the shadow of his wife.

Roger himself did not seem to be a strong-willed person. He was certainly stronger than her physically, but emotionally she appears to have turned him into as much of a willing slave as some of her victims were. Anita was a domineering wife and this transformed itself in the most hideous of ways.

In 1998, Anita’s temper escalated. During one of the last visits to Roger’s brother, he recalls that Roger confided in him that Anita’s menopause had begun. This had a psychological as well as physical toll on Anita – she wanted children. Perhaps to love, perhaps to control them.

We will never know exactly when Anita decided to snatch young children. But we have a good estimation as to how this seed was planted in her mind.

Children younger than six and they would be too loud and cry too much. Older than eight or nine and they might fight back. Anita must have always wanted a big family, just as hers had been.

The two began to prepare. It is likely that Anita had Roger renovate the basement into the five different bedrooms that were created. By March 1999 they were ready.

On 6th March 1999 they kidnapped Karla Hartaway, aged nine. It would be eleven years before her family finally learnt what had happened to her. Over the next eleven years the couple abducted eleven more children. Of their twelve victims, ages ranging from six to nine, only three survived. The last to die had been killed less than twenty-four hours earlier.

Here is a list of their victims. Death dates are provided by Charlie Hillridge, the eldest of the victims to be recovered.

 **Karla Hartaway** , 9, 6th March 1999, Garrisonville – Charlie says that Karla was living in the basement when he arrived. By this time she was twelve. She was killed on September 8th 2005, at age 15. She was killed because she was now too old for Anita’s desires.

 **Jake Wusman** , 8, 29th September 2000, Rock Creek Park – Charlie says that Jake was living in the basement when he arrived. By this time he was eleven. He was killed on November 11th 2004, two days after his thirteenth birthday. He was killed because he was now too old for Anita’s desires.

 **Ryan Dowerman** , 6, 2nd March 2001, Bowling Green – Charlie says that Ryan was living in the basement when he arrived. By this time he was seven. He was killed on May 18th 2002, at age seven. He was killed because he was becoming too violent for Anita. He was the first of the children that she murdered.

 **Charlie Hillridge** , 8, 3rd March 2002, Leesburg – Charlie had a Polaroid camera with him when he was kidnapped, which allowed him to take photos of each of the children that were held with him. He also stole calendars when he was allowed out so he could keep track of days. He was rescued by FBI on 3rd March 2010, along with Mae Hall and Aimee Lynch, at age 16. He was the oldest of Anita’s hostages to survive.

 **Stephen Shepherd** , 7, 11th February 2003, Arlington – Stephen was described by Charlie as being a ‘mostly quiet child’ when he was younger. However, by the age of thirteen he was becoming more defensive, offering himself for punishment in lieu of the others. This may have helped keep him alive until 2nd March 2010. In the year leading up to his murder, Stephen started to rebel, both silently and aggressively. After the murder of Hannah Bidon, whom he had a strong bond with, Stephen refused to have anything to do with his captors. He died three weeks after his fifteenth birthday.

 **Dylan Hedgecliff** , 7, June 4th 2004, Linden – Dylan lasted the least amount of time save for Aimee Lynch. Charlie says that Dylan left them on December 13th 2004, six months after his kidnapping, at age eight. He was killed because he was too aggressive for Anita. Charlie recalls that just before Dylan left, he bit Roger on the arm. If this was not the deciding moment, it was certainly a factor.

 **Danny Kenman** , 9, June 12th 2005, Purcellville – Danny’s abduction was the last one that Karla Hartaway had a hand in. Like Charlie would after her, Karla was forced by Anita to help her in kidnapping children if she wished to survive longer, not that the girl knew it at the time. Karla was also forced to help assist the Roycewoods in taking Stephen and Dylan. Danny was murdered on January 31st 2010, at age 13. He was killed because he had become too old for Anita’s desires.

 **Mae Hall** , 8, April 4th 2006, Madison – Mae was recovered alive, along with Charlie Hillridge and Aimee Lynch on 3rd March 2010, at age twelve. She was the first girl that Anita abducted since Karla. This was the first abduction that Charlie was forced to take part in.

 **Kayla Pargrave** , 9, September 6th 2007, Lueneberg – Kayla was first seen by Charlie as she brought a hot dog at a fair. Kayla was killed on November 27th 2009, at age twelve. She was killed because she was becoming too old for Anita’s desires, although her arrogance also seems to have been a factor.

 **Austin Manford** , 9, June 13th 2008, Ashburn – Austin was chosen by Charlie after Anita had an eye on Austin’s younger sister. Charlie suggested Austin as he believed that the boy was not sickly and therefore more likely to survive. Austin was murdered on February 1st 2009, at age ten. He was killed because he was becoming too violent for Anita.

 **Hannah Bidon** , 7, March 7th 2009, Fredericksburg – Hannah was spotted by Charlie as she walked in a park, her parents at a picnic table just out of sight. She was killed on January 31st 2010, at age eight. She was killed because ‘she cried too much for Anita’ and refused to try and ‘bond’ with her. Anita might also have been jealous of Stephen’s dedication towards Hannah.

 **Aimee Lynch** , 8, March 2nd 2010, Ashburn – Aimee’s disappearance prompted Mrs Hillridge to come to the BAU headquarters. That very day Aimee, Charlie and Mae were rescued.

The type of victim and how long they were held also seems to tell more about their kidnappers. Of the dozen victims, seven were male and five were female. No more than six children were held at a time. Perhaps such a large number was why Anita and Roger had problems in controlling them and decided to kill off the rowdiest.

Anita’s choice in killing them when they grew older – and as it had been in such a brutal way, it is very likely to have been her idea – may have stemmed from a comment made by her sister. When Anita last saw her sister, in 2001 or 2002, her sister mentioned that when children got older they were a nightmare. Anita seems to have relished in controlling young victims. She saw her victims as disposable. This might have been why she chose to kill off the ‘weakest’ children. Whether or not Charlie would have lived much longer is a horrifying theory in itself.

The idea came to me when I was looking over the genders of the children and their ages when they died. Of the three girls to be murdered, only one (Karla) reached her teenage years. On the other hand, four of the male victims (Jake, Charlie, Stephen and Danny) were allowed to enter puberty. This could link back to Anita’s desires for a child.

Maybe Anita felt that she wasn’t the one to blame. Maybe she considered Roger incompetent. She had been married to him for over twenty years by the time she became menopausal. Whether or not she would have ever become pregnant if she had never met Roger is unknown, but the fact seems to be that she at least partially blamed him for her barrenness. If Aimee had never been kidnapped and the FBI caught onto the couple’s spree, it is uncomfortably possible that Anita would have selected Charlie as something more than a surrogate son and forced partner in crime. The seven year gap between abducting Karla and Mae also imply that Anita was filling the basement with growing boys – subconsciously telling Roger ‘I no longer find you attractive’. Growing girls may have, in Anita’s twisted view, been considered rivals.

Anita Roycewood abandoned Roger to the police when she went to kill her three surviving hostages. Whether she would have returned or committed suicide herself is not quite certain. It is likely that if she did plan on killing herself, though, she would not have killed her hostages.

But we can never know. Charlie killed Anita to defend himself and the two girls.

As of 2016, Charlie is studying at college in Washington. Mae and her family are in an undisclosed location in Virginia and is due to graduate high school. Aimee still lives with her family and has chosen not to talk to press.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretending that this is an actual book by David Rossi and as such, some chapters will be 'missing'. Presumably these chapters would have been based on real-life criminals.
> 
> If this chapter seems long and meandering, that's what some true crime books are like. Therefore, it seems as if I am adding more information than I have. These seem to be horror movies for people with OCD.
> 
> Very little information is revealed about the Romani tribe in the episode. Aside from Sylvia/Kathy, we are never even given first names. The kidnappers have also operated for a hundred years, providing endless potential, and there were so many unanswered questions by the end of the story. Therefore, I created most of the facts in this chapter.

The Romani Abductors

When the FBI was called to the Hale household on January 19th 2009, we stumbled across a horrific sight. The parents had been murdered and their ten-year-old daughter **Cate Hale** was missing. But when Cate was recovered, we found a bizarre web of kidnapping, brainwashing and murder going back to 1909.

As Cate was seen as ‘inadequate’ – she had asthma – the father of the twisted family wanted to kill her. However, the mother decided to instead let her go. They took another girl, **Lynn Robillard** , also ten, after killing her parents. She was recovered alive the next day (see previous chapter).

The father that had been arrested was named Greg (b. 1961) and the son was named Thomas (b. 1999). The mother, **Kathy Grey** , also known as ‘Sylvia’, had been abducted by Greg and his parents in 1971 and had been completely brainwashed.

As Sylvia would later attest to during a separate investigation carried out by other FBI agents, she had four sons and one daughter, although she hadn’t seen her daughter (only known as Maya) since 1995.

The scheme that the family had been carrying out for a hundred years was a complex and terrifying one. What exactly originally took place is unknown, but it seems that Greg’s great-grandfather, Morris (c. 1869 – 1950), decided that American children would always be against foreigners and refuse to marry his children once they grew up. He had three sons and a daughter in 1909, ages ten, seven, five and four.

While in Bradys Bend, PA (the first successful abduction we could link the family to) in August 1909, Morris told his eldest son Richard (1899 – 1968) to chose a girl of his own age to be forced to become a compliant wife. How they selected her is unknown to anyone except the family, but on 7th August 1909 Morris, his wife Teresa (c. 1869 – 1956) and Richard broke into the house of **Ivy Arkwright** (b. 1899), killed her parents and kidnapped her.

Ivy was never seen alive again. Sylvia says that the family told her that Ivy had died sometime in the mid-1960s, but is unsure of the exact date.

As for Sylvia – or ‘Kathy’ as she now prefers to be called – her own brood were brought up the same way as Greg had been. She would teach the boys that their way was best and that when they turned ten years old, they could pick any girl they wanted. It really is fascinating and tragic as to how indoctrinated she became.

As for the girls born in the family, that was a mystery to us at first. At first we were convinced that the Romani family murdered any girls that were born to them. But when Kathy told us the story of how the first abduction came to be, she let slip that the family four generations back had had a daughter as well. After some persuading, Kathy told us that the original daughter was sent to live with another Romani family.

This was what happened to her own daughter. Maya was ten years old when her grooming was considered complete and she went to live with another Romani family as a ‘gift’. Kathy does not know where Maya is now. If alive, Maya would be thirty-one of as 2016.

Kathy’s three other sons had already grown up and left the bizarre unit by 2009. Kathy was reluctant to provide any information at first. Despite the horrendous situations, she was still a loving mother. But she gave in and told us their names and birth dates; Joshua (born 1978), Craig (born 1982) and Todd (born 1994).

We matched those years to three separate abductions. The three unsolved cases looked out at us from the screens.

 **Sarah Phelps** , 9, of Boonville, MO, 30th August 1988 – **Hailey Hall** , 10, of Hollidaysburg, PA, 5th September 1992 – **Rachelle Arthur** , 9, of Waterville, ME, 16th June 2004.

We asked Kathy if she knew where the three girls were now. All she did was spit and behave violently. When the agents made a deal, that Kathy would be given a lighter sentence than her husband, she relented and gave us what she knew.

Joshua and Sarah were living with their two sons, aged nine and six, in Ogden, UT. Craig and Hailey were somewhere in northern Michigan with their thirteen-year-old son. Todd and Rachelle were being looked after by one of Greg’s brothers in Florida.

The mention of Kathy having a thirteen-year-old grandson made my hair stand up on the back of my neck for two reasons. The first was that the birth date would have put Hailey at just fourteen when he was born. The second was that this meant a girl had been snatched in 2007. Some more coaxing lead Kathy to reveal that the girl was **Kasey Chester** , abducted at age ten from St. George, UT on 4th December 2007.

Joshua and Craig were found with their wives and children pretty quickly. Todd and Rachelle were found in Florida with Greg’s brother Nicholas (b. 1963) and his wife, **Lois Bristol** , taken from Laurel, MS at age nine on 9th November 1973.

Nicholas was extremely rowdy as he was being arrested, punching and biting and swearing loudly in Romanian. He addressed one of these shouts to Lois, who at that point was in their caravan. She ran from the front door with a young girl of six or seven. Heading across the marshy swamps, she was caught as she was approaching what seemed to be a large rabbit hutch. As an officer tackled her to the ground, another gingerly opened the lid. Inside he found a sobbing, tied-up girl; **Scarlett Samson** , 10, had been kidnapped two days earlier.

Nicholas’ children were assessed. According to the family’s belongings inside the caravan, this branch numbered three children, as well as Todd and Rachelle.

The sons were James (b. 1985), Allen (b. 1991) and Martyn (b. 1999). James had moved out of the family home in 2008, Allen a month earlier. But Martyn was still here. He said that he had chosen Scarlett after he saw her at a mall.

James was found to be residing in Sauk City, WI with his wife **Martina Mills** , abducted at age ten from Corvallis, OR on 14th July 1995. They did not have any issue.

Allen was recovered in Tyler, TX with his wife **Ruby Giffard** , abducted at age ten from El Paso, TX on 7th October 2001. They too did not have any issue.

At this point we asked Kathy how many of the girls that were abducted were still alive. We excluded those who would be dead due to passage of time, but estimated that around 15 to 20 would still be alive.

Kathy must have been exhausted by this point. She must have known that it was pointless in trying to defend them. We were slightly torn up about it as well; these current branches of the family tree had young children. We would still be splitting up families either way.

As it turned out, Kathy was ready to give away the identities. Greg’s grandmother had been Ivy, but his mother had been **Dorothy Burns** , aged nine when she was kidnapped on 20th April 1940 in Peoria, IL. The old woman was still alive, living in Wisconsin.

Greg had an older sister and another brother. His sister, known only as Cora, was sent to live with another, unknowing, family in 1968. Kathy never met her.

However, she had met Greg’s brother Steven (b. 1966). Describing him as a sweet little boy, Steven had taken his wife **Tammy Moore** in Killington, VT on 19th July 1976. Kathy had originally had some sympathy for the little girl once she was brought to the caravan. However, her brainwashing prevented her from trying to help Tammy.

Perhaps it was this supposed failure that caused Kathy to help asthmatic Cate Hale.

Steven and Tammy had three children; a girl only known as Sharon (b. 1988) and two boys, Austin (b. 1993) and Benjamin (b. 2000). Austin’s ‘wife’, **Melody Traviss** , was taken from Coalinga, CA on 21st January 2003. She was found living with the family when they were found in Rio Rancho, AZ.

By this point only ten of the estimated twenty still alive had been accounted for. I was busy on other cases, but kept an ear open for any news.

By February, Kathy told us which girls were still alive. Writing down all that she knew (as even if she didn’t know the exact dates, she knew the years), she gave this information to us in exchange for a lighter sentence.

She believed that the following girls were still alive.

**Lauren Wortham** , 9, taken 4th November 1939, St. Cloud, MN (This turned out to be correct)  
**Amy Shakespeare** , 10, taken 30th July 1942, Walton, KY (This turned out to be correct)  
**Dolores Norman** , 10, taken 6th October 1947, Logansport, IN (This turned out to be correct)  
**April Church** , 10, taken 25th May 1958, Muskegon, MI (This turned out to be correct)  
**Joan Woodward** , 9, taken 14th March 1962, Clinton, IL (Died 2006 of cancer, aged 53)  
**Marilyn Kerry** , 10, taken 8th December 1972, Shreveport, LA (This turned out to be correct)  
**Catrina Toller** , 9, taken 31st August 1974, Collierville, TN (This turned out to be correct)  
**Cheryl Rogerson** , 10, taken 2nd August 1980, Springfield, AR (This turned out to be correct)  
**Melissa Clifton** , 10, taken 26th September 1987, Texarkana, TX (This turned out to be correct)  
**Judith Meyer** , 9, taken 5th May 1989, Parkersburg, WV (This turned out to be correct)  
**Amanda Peters** , 9, taken 3rd October 2000, Dickinson, ND (This turned out to be correct)  
**Brittany Crouch** , 10, taken 24th February 2005, Estes Park, CO (This turned out to be correct)

The fact that we could close some thirty-odd cases was a small miracle in itself. All of the living women and girls recovered listed above were loyal to their husbands and sons, refusing to break and in some cases, refused to admit their real names. However, this troublesome case did allow people, both in the United States and abroad, consider that just because a body has never been found that doesn’t mean a child is dead.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If this story seems a little long-winded and difficult to understand then I apologize, but I wanted this to be as close to true crime works that I have read as possible.

J.B Allen

James Brendan ‘J.B’ Allen was already in his sixties by the time we caught him. Aged sixty-six, he had spent the past 37 years as a real-estate developer and owned his own company in Crawford, Arizona. However, as we were to discover, he had murdered several young boys and buried their bodies beneath the houses he built in Mesa.

It is tragic and horrible enough that he killed so many and in such terrible ways. However, he kept his victims locked away for years at a time, waiting until they became too old for his liking. It was at this point that he killed them.

Allen was only found out when an emasculated young man was found on a lonely stretch of road in rural Arizona on March 30th 2012. This was just before Allen abducted thirteen-year-old Billy Henderson in Flagstaff. Billy was recovered the next day in Mesa, where J.B was trying to bury him alive.

J.B’s family life was not as complicated as his crime spree. He was married to his wife Etta (1952 – 1982) before she passed away from cancer on 8th May 1982. His daughter, Samantha (born 1977) witnessed her father bringing a victim into the house one night in 1982. However, she repressed the memory for thirty years due to being unable to believe that her father was capable of this.

J.B was described as a dedicated father and husband and a well-liked pillar of the community. Not all serial killers are insane, disheveled people in derelict buildings, although some of them are. Allen had no record before his arrest in 2012 and would likely have flown under the radar for the remainder of his life if he was not caught.

Since J.B had spent the entirety of his life in Arizona – and occasionally crossed the border into New Mexico or Utah – the FBI focused their search on those areas. Since J.B’s surviving long-term hostage, Angel Suarez, had been an illegal and therefore his mother had not reported him to authorities when he disappeared in 2004, it was within the realms of possibility that other victims were from the same background. However, as J.B’s other surviving victim, Billy Henderson, had been regarded as low-risk, the FBI also chose to look at missing boys who we already knew about.

We will never know exactly when J.B began his spree. He was already in his late twenties by the time he started up his company. We knew from his daughter Samantha that his crimes went at least as far back as 1982 (see list of victims) and that she recalled the dates that he gave her ‘presents’ – in actuality, trophies from his hostages. But there is the complex mystery of how many he took.

As there were no reported abductions of children of his preferred age range (between eight and thirteen) from 1964 to 1975, when he started up his construction company, we can assume one of three theories. The first is that he took children whose disappearances were reported as runaways or as lost/injured (we explored this avenue but did not find any from before 1985; see list of victims). The second is that he killed children older than this age range before 1982 (which, although unlikely, was possible). The third was that he took boys like Angel Suarez, whose families either didn’t report them missing because they were illegal aliens or he took boys from elsewhere who had run away and ended up on the streets, therefore originally from outside of his comfort zone.

The FBI agreed that the third option was most probably the right one.

They appealed for any illegal aliens to come forward if they had lost a son or loved one of that age range sometime in the past but did not report it. Arizona State Police found a maximum of four suspected victims this way.

Samantha provided the Crawford police and the FBI with all of the gifts from J.B that she still had in her possession. The FBI released pictures of these on their website, as well as the Arizona State Police. Pictures were also sent to Utah and New Mexico and broadcast on Spanish news channels.

The number of houses already built on the site that J.B attempted to murder Billy Henderson in amounted to thirteen; seven on one side of the road and eight on the other in a cul-de-sac. Since we could not dig up any of the houses unless we had evidence that a body may be buried there, we decided to wait until we had all of the likely victims and dates of the houses’ constructions to cross-reference.

After four days, Arizona State Police conducting the investigation found four possible victims. Within another week, they had four more, none of whom had been reported as missing due to being illegal. The FBI now had probable cause that these boys were buried on the Mesa site.

**Wyatt Ellis** , 10, went missing on 26th April 1982 from Tortilota, AZ – his backpack was found in J.B’s basement.  
 **Herberto Sosa** , 10-11, went missing sometime in the summer of 1986 from Las Vistas, AZ – his mother reported him missing in 2012, but had believed he had try to go home to Mexico. She recognized a denim jacket among the trophies.  
 **Ramiro De Leon** , 9, went missing on 31st December 1988 from Tombstone, AZ – his brother reported him missing in 2012. He thought that he recognized a G.I. Joe doll with green nail polish caught in its hair among the trophies.  
 **Ashley Elwes** , 12, went missing on 8th May 1991 from Holbrook, AZ – his catcher’s mitt was found in the basement.  
 **Daryl Huxley** , 13, went missing on 6th June 1994 from Kanab, UT – his baseball cap was found among the trophies.  
 **Narciso Rojas** , 12, went missing in August 1997 from Lordsburg, NM – his brother reported him missing in 2012. He said that he had seen Narciso talking to a man at a construction site before he disappeared. The brother recognized Narciso’s football among the trophies.  
 **Jeremy Irving** , 8, went missing on 6th February 2002 from Winslow, AZ – his backpack and school books were found in the basement.  
 **Rufino Cuellar** , 11, went missing sometime in early 2004 from Marana, AZ – his sister reported him missing in 2012. She recognized his trainers in J.B’s basement.

As you can see from the dates, while there was evidence that children were held for long gaps of time, being killed during puberty, there were still some large gaps. The dates between Narciso and Jeremy’s disappearances were four and half years and while he did keep Angel until he was sixteen, this seemed to be more out of a necessity that J.B knew he might have to stretch the abductions out more due to his advanced age.

Arizona State Police cross-checked the dates that the houses were built. They were as follows.

The houses on the left side of the road were built in 1980, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1991 and 1992. The houses on the right side of the road were built in 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2004 and 2004.

This meant that we still had five more unaccounted for and that J.B’s crimes went at least two years earlier than first thought.

The FBI got permission to dig up the homes with distinctive evidence; Ramiro De Leon, Jeremy Irving and Rufino Cuellar had definitely been taken, as the trophies were easy to identify. Calculating, we found out that they were likely under Houses #5 (Ramiro), #11 (Jeremy) and #12 (Rufino).

As expected, bodies were found under the houses. Each one was bound with tape and in the fetal position. We cannot be sure if J.B buried them alive, as he attempted to do with Billy. But the fact that some of the skeletons found during the excavations were situated upwards means that this is very likely to be the truth. Several police officers and forensics experts at the scene were horrified. Two had to go home due to feeling unwell.

DNA testing was done on these bodies. Ramiro was identified as being under House #5, putting his date of death in April or May 1991 at the age of eleven. Jeremy was identified as being under House #11, putting his date of death in early 2004 at the age of ten. Rufino was identified as being under House #12, putting his date of death sometime in early 2004 at the age of eleven.

We wondered why J.B had killed younger boys when he kept them until their teens. Perhaps he found them too troublesome, as was the case with Anita Roycewood (see Roycewood chapter).

When this was completed, we had a look at other houses in J.B’s ‘project’ as he had named it. As Wyatt Ellis’ backpack was found in the basement – identified by his mother by a horse drawing on the side, despite there being proof that the name inside had been removed before being given to Samantha – we decided that he was likely, due to known dates, to be under House #3. We assumed the same with Daryl Huxley; yet again there was some proof that his nametag had been removed from the baseball cap. However, we did not know which house he would be buried underneath. Since the next known child – Narciso – had been taken in 1997, the police chose House #9, although J.B’s modus operandi would indicate that he was under House #8.

I was correct in my thinking. The body recovered from under House #9 was not Daryl. Instead, he was a Hispanic/Latino male between twelve and fifteen years. I estimated that he was abducted sometime in September 1995, when House #8 was built, roughly between the ages of ten and thirteen.

This boy has not yet been identified.

Houses #1 and #2 were the trickiest. We were almost one hundred percent certain (I was one hundred percent certain, but I couldn’t tell anyone that) that two victims were killed in 1980 and 1982, but we didn’t know their names or even if these boys were there.

Then, around a month after J.B was arrested, the investigating officers had a stroke of luck.

A woman from Silver City, NM said that her brother had disappeared in 1977 when they had been children in Pinos Altos. She always believed that he had gone missing during a hiking trip the two of them had had – and that was what police had said at the time – but she had never been certain.

**Tomas Marquez** , then eleven, had been legal but even if police at the time had cared much, there hadn’t been enough manpower in that small town to mount a thorough search. It was spotty at best, but the FBI said they would consider him.

We had a possible name for House #2. **Jacob Miles** , 13, had disappeared, listed as a runaway, in Claypool, AZ in February 1980. Again we did not have enough evidence to excavate the house.

There were also three unknown abductions in 1992, 1995 and 1999. We suspected that these were illegal aliens, but the FBI and Arizona police did not have much to go on.

Samantha was asked when she had received her bicycle. Such a big object would have been noticed if it had gone missing with its owner. She replied that it was possibly in 1992. As such, police checked records of all possible disappearances across the country – those that had been reported, that is – involving a bicycle.

Twelve-year-old **Patrick Lawson** had been cycling to school in an Albuquerque suburb on 1st May 1992, nearly a year after Ashley Elwes was kidnapped. The similarities with Billy Henderson’s abduction were too eerie to ignore. Nearly five weeks after J.B’s spree was exposed, Arizona police excavated House #7. Inside was the body of a young male. DNA tests revealed this was Patrick, putting his date of death in May or June 1994 at the age of fourteen or fifteen.

The police and the construction company made a deal; they would dig up the houses built after 1988 (Ramiro was buried in 1991). If there were no bodies found at a house, then Arizona State Police would pay for any damages. It was better than nothing.

Ashley Elwes was recovered under House #6, putting his date of death in April 1992 at age thirteen.

As I had suggested, Daryl Huxley was recovered under House #8, putting his date of death in September 1995 at the age of fourteen.

Narciso Rojas was recovered under House #10, putting his date of death in October 1999 at the age of fourteen.

Since bodies had been recovered from every house the police excavated, the construction company relented and allowed them to dig up Houses #1, #2, #3 and #4.

Under House #1 we recovered a White or Hispanic/Latino male between the ages of fourteen and eighteen (most likely, given J.B’s modus operandi, fourteen to sixteen), who had died in January or February 1980. We believed this boy was Tomas Marquez. A DNA test was conclusive and Tomas was recorded as having died at the age of fourteen years.

Under House #2 we recovered a Hispanic/Latino male between the ages of eight and eleven, who had died in April 1982. This put his age at disappearance roughly between six and nine, most likely eight or nine. This boy has not been identified.

Under House #3 we recovered Wyatt Ellis, putting his date of death in July 1986, when the house was built, at the age of fifteen.

Under House #4 we recovered Herberto Sosa, putting his date of death in December 1988 at the age of thirteen or fourteen.

On 8th August 2013, James Brendan Allen was sentenced to death for the twelve homicides, false imprisonment and illegal burial. While the actual child molestation could never be proven, we all privately agreed that this had occurred when he held his prisoners.

As far as the FBI is concerned, Angel Suarez and his mother are now American citizens and are living in Arizona.

The two unidentified boys (nicknamed **Scott** and **Paul** by the media, though I have no clue why) are believed to have been abducted in January or February 1980 and in September 1995 respectively. They were very likely illegal aliens that stumbled across Allen’s sites while crossing the border itself or were never reported missing as their families never heard about the coverage. Maybe they have no family left and that is why no-one identified them. Two trophies, believed to be their belongings, were found in the Allen basement; an orange poncho and a children’s book written in Spanish. Their pictures are still up on the FBI website as of this publication.

J.B Allen is sitting on Death Row in Arizona. Due to his age and the slow process it takes to get convicts executed, he will likely die of natural causes before he is executed.

A manner of death that hardly seems fair for a man who reduced his child victims to traumatized shells before burying them alive in the cold desert night.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise that I will try to be a bit cheerier in my next chapters.

The Case of Kyle Murphy

Hugh Rollins

If it were not for this man’s confession, I would not have been able to name him at all. The crime which he was arrested for turned out not to have been committed by him at all. The police on the case, however, were certain that he had killed two young boys in the area, so they kept an eye on him nevertheless.

Hugh Rollins was born on May 3rd 1966 in New Jersey. His mother, a waitress from Vineland, was unable to care for him and placed him in foster care in 1969. While there is no firm proof that Rollins was abused physically or sexually as a child, there were other reports from a foster home in Camden against a social worker who worked there between 1967 and 1980. Rollins lived at that home for eight months in 1974. This could fit in with his supposed victim preference of boys aged between seven and eleven.

Rollins has a long rap sheet, mainly consisting of petty thefts and break-ins. He was first caught as a juvenile in 1980, breaking into a convenience store after hours. He spent a year in prison. Over the following ten years, Rollins had four stints in prison (six months in 1983 for theft; a year for burglary in 1985; eight months for breaking into a car on Thanksgiving 1987 and two and a half years for burglary in 1998). It was not until June 9th 2006, however, that he would commit a crime that put him on the FBI’s radar for murder three years later.

While working as a TV repairman in Eagleswood, Rollins ambushed a twelve-year-old neighbor of the house he was sent to. He reportedly asked the child for a spanner, but when he approached the youngster he showed his true colors. The boy yelled and the owner of the house spotted Rollins touching the victim. Rollins took a plea as this was his first sexual offense, being placed on the sex offenders’ register and serving eighteen months in prison.

Just under a year after his release, he took his first known life.

While the FBI were assisting in the investigation behind the disappearance of six-year-old Kyle Murphy on April 21st 2009, we believed – understandably – that his kidnapping was related to the murders of **Andy Loeser** , 11, on November 15th 2008 and **Jimmy Seager** , 9, on February 21st 2009. Rollins would later confess to these murders.

Since Rollins had committed a crime against a child and resided in the local proximity, he was to be brought in for questioning while Kyle was still missing.

The evidence was sufficient enough to hold him for the two murders, but when pressured to reveal what he had done to Kyle, Rollins admitted to throwing him into the Delaware River. This went against Rollins’ known modus operandi and we were suspicious. We realized that Rollins genuinely had no idea what had happened to Kyle – he hadn’t taken the child.

Rollins had originally lied so as to get a deal. He knew that the punishment for murder was much worse than sexual indecency. He had shown co-operation to be locked up away from all the prisoners who would wish to torment and kill a pedophile. This type of situation is far more common than you would think.

I will get into what happened to Kyle Murphy, but first I will divulge a little more into Hugh Rollins’ shady past.

After Rollins was recorded as giving away information about the murders of Andy Loeser and Jimmy Seager – the only reason he went to prison at all and why I can say his name without fear of being reprimanded – the FBI looked closer into his past. A criminal with sexual intentions does not usually begin his career at forty, especially if he was free for most of his life. We doubted that Andy was his first victim, but we needed to look further.

Rollins had left the foster care system in 1984, at eighteen years old. He spent time in Ocean City (May ’84 – August ’85, when he was arrested for burglary), Wildwood (August ’86 to January or February ’87), Bridgeton (March ’87 to November ’87, when he was arrested for breaking into a car), Bass River (September ’88 to July ’98; and January ’01 to March ‘02) and Eagleswood (March ’02 to his arrest in June ’06). Examining known abductions in New Jersey, we found an uncomfortable pattern.

Looking at abductions and murders of the already agreed range of boys aged seven to eleven (bumping it up to twelve because of the 2006 arrest), we found at least eight possible cases. Rollins preferred to visit Wharton State Park since 1987, confirmed by photographs of him in numerous spots. These photos are provided in this book (pages 117-123, along with photographs from other cases). While they are not known to be places where he may have buried victims, this cannot be ruled out.

Howard Hewitt, 10, last seen on Roosevelt Boulevard in Ocean City, NJ on 19th November 1984. Walking home from buying groceries, the bag was found on the ground by County Highway 623. His body was found in Run Creek in Marmora the following May. He was too decomposed to work out how he had died.

Clark Blakesley, 7, spotted talking to a man on the Adventure Pier in Wildwood on 18th September 1988. Clark was seen walking to the car park with this man, whose description is not too dissimilar to Rollins in 1986. Clark, who looked older than he really was, has never been found. While Rollins no longer lived in Wildwood, he is known to have visited friends who worked on the pier.

**Dennis Fairchild** , 12, last seen at a Fourth of July festival in Salem in 1991. He was seen walking towards the car park at 2pm. Employment records show that Rollins had been installing a television at a house near the park, but we are unsure as to what time he left. Dennis was found in woodland off Jackson Road in Buena Vista Township on 7th July. This particular road is on the route that Rollins would likely have taken between Salem and Bass River. An autopsy showed that Dennis had been strangled within hours of his abduction. Of all of the abductions, I considered this case to be the most likely to be Rollins’ work.

Hugo Skinner, 10, disappeared while going to school in Galloway on 15th February 1993. He was seen walking to the bus stop, but the bus – which happened to be late – arrived to an empty stop. Hugo has never been found. Rollins lived less than ten miles away. Galloway is one turn off from the Golden State Parkway, which runs through Bass River.

Mack Speight, 8, of Berkeley Township was going to a pottery lesson on 20th August 1995. His body was found in Wharton State Park off Hawkins Bridge Road on 27th August. As with Howard Hewitt, Mack was too decomposed for forensics to work out how he had died, but a newspaper clipping of his abduction was found in Rollins’ possessions after his 2009 arrest.

Wayne Winslow, 11, of Elm was last seen talking to a man matching Rollins’ description on 7th December 1997 outside of a mall. According to witnesses, the boy seemed nervous and tried to walk away. Dogs tracked Wayne’s scent to Atison Road near Shamong, only a few miles from where Andy and Jimmy were found, but lost him after that. Wayne’s body was found on Shawnee Trail four miles north in February. This was another case that I decided had many similarities to Rollins’ murders.

**Trent Bowman** , 10, was last seen in Seaside Heights on 22nd October 2002 as he went to buy some candy. He left the store at 3pm, but never came home. Rollins’ employment records showed that he had been working at a house on the same block that day and had left at 2.54pm. Trent’s body was found on 20th November down a dirt road off Barnegat Road, eighteen miles from his house and ten miles from Rollins’ house. A photograph of Rollins from that summer had been taken on Barnegat Road.

**Felix Martin** , 12, had been last seen on Long Beach Island on 20th September 2004, only ten miles from Eagleswood. Felix’s body was found over a year later, on the third anniversary of Trent’s abduction, 22nd October 2005, off a trail by County Road 563. A photograph of Rollins was found to have been taken in summer 2002 at that very spot.

The FBI decided to question him about Dennis, Trent and Felix, as Clark was still missing. When shown the boys’ pictures, he said that they ‘looked pretty’. His facial expressions gave away that he possibly knew something. The FBI said he could have a deal if he proved something, but Rollins – like many killers in this troubled situation – was silent.

By November 2009, just days before his trial for killing Andy and Jimmy, Rollins said that he had killed Dennis, Trent and Felix, giving away information only the killer would know. I knew why he was doing this; he wanted to hold off going to prison for as long as he could.

Over the next three years Rollins stayed quiet until the last minute, only giving away information if he thought it would reduce his chances in prison – or worse, Death Row.

He admitted killing Mack and Wayne before the second trial date. Before the third, he said that he had killed another boy, but as he had been in prison during this particular crime, we dismissed that statement. But because of this admission, we knew that his other confessions would now seem to be hearsay and inadmissible in court.

I was working on other cases, but I heard through the grapevine of other times he confessed.

He would mention every one of the above names throughout his time in prison, on a locked ward with other pedophiles. But if questioned about these cases, he would clam up.

As I went to press in April 2016, I heard that Hugh Rollins had died of a heart attack in custody. He was never punished for the other murders - ones I have no doubt that he committed. He was only ever charged with Andy and Jimmy's deaths, although he gave away information about three more. Those are the crimes that police have against his name. As such, I cannot name any of the other boys listed above as his victims.

Danny Murphy

Danny Murphy was born to Dan and Sarah Murphy on February 6th 2000 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He was described as a quiet baby who stared around at things. He was good with his hands, which later formed into a love of building model aeroplanes.

When his brother Kyle was born on July 26th 2002, Danny was uninterested. He would loathe him and hit him for taking his toys. Dan and Sarah said that they did all they could, but were unable to make Danny obey them. There was no history of abuse in the family, according to a prison psychologist who examined Danny after his arrest.

In cases like this, the parents are not to blame. Psychologists go on about how parenting can alter a child’s mind, but some people are just born evil. On the other side of the argument, not all abused children become child molesters or perverts. This awful thought process is why even now some people won’t help young male victims of abuse as much as their female counterparts, which in turn leads to a horrific cycle of evil.

Abuse does not make a person evil. If someone happens to be wired a certain way then said abuse can be a trigger that turns them into a criminal. But even if they weren’t abused as children, a person may grow up into a psychopath. The whole thing is a cruel lottery, a combination of various life-changing events.

On the night of April 20th 2009 Danny had been up late working on his model of a World War II-era B-25 Mitchell bomber. Kyle came down to tell him that their parents would be mad. Danny bribed him by saying that he could look at his model but not touch it. Kyle accidentally broke it, causing Danny to strangle his brother in a fit of rage. Dan and Sarah came down and discovered what he had done. Danny had said that the whole thing was an accident.

Dan and Sarah didn’t want the police to take their living child away, so they called up Detective Bill Lancaster. Bill decided that, as there was an ongoing manhunt for the murderer of Andy Loeser and Jimmy Saeger, they would pretend that Kyle was another victim. Throughout this process, none of the adults realized that Danny was acting far too coldly to be genuinely remorseful.

I cannot entirely blame Dan, Sarah and Bill for what they did. Dan and Sarah were loving parents and a mixture of grief and worry blinded them to Danny’s strange behavior. Bill’s rationalization was that Kyle would simply be listed as the victim of another pedophile, one who would likely be facing death already for the other murders.

This was a risky move for Bill. He must have known the scenarios that could have arisen from this ruse. Perhaps the person who killed Andy and Jimmy would have an alibi for Kyle’s murder, therefore putting doubt on the two deaths. Perhaps – and this may almost certainly have happened – Danny would years later murder someone else. Perhaps – as the FBI did work out – the lack of sexual assault towards Kyle, the placement of the body suggesting remorse and the blows to Kyle’s head having been committed post-mortem would point towards someone else.

But Bill didn’t want to see Dan and Sarah lose another child. He set about this way to prevent a mourning family, therefore becoming an accessory after the fact.

When my colleague was left alone with Danny while we were questioning his parents, who had become suspects after we ruled out Hugh Rollins, she offered him some potato chips. She saw him go into a fit of rage when he failed to open the bag. She also noticed that during his parents’ plea for Kyle’s safe return, Danny had seemed distant and bored. Of course, all victims of crime react differently; it’s drummed into the head of every doctor and officer investigating a rape claim.

But for a child to act this way towards a missing and possibly dead younger sibling, no matter how much they hated them, stands out like a sore thumb.

After pieces of Danny’s model aeroplane were found in Kyle’s throat, Dan and Sarah were forced to admit to themselves that their older son was far more than a problem child.

Danny had killed a puppy a year before Kyle’s murder. Such a violent act in a child so young would have most parents calling a child psychiatrist. But Danny managed to wheedle his way into talking them out of this.

If this was what Danny Murphy could do as a child, it was a terrifying thought to imagine him as an adult.

On November 9th 2009 Danny was the youngest person in the United States to be charged with second degree murder. Due to his young age, he should not have been named in the media if it were not for the fact that he was already known as Kyle’s brother. It was a lengthy and complicated trial. Despite the fact that the minimum age of criminal responsibility is eleven and Danny was not even ten at the time of trial, an exception was allowed by Congress due to the circumstances.

Danny knew right from wrong, psychiatrists who had interviewed him since his arrest testified. The murder was not premeditated, but there was still a degree of violence involved.

The jury spent six days trying to find a verdict. On December 10th 2009 they found him guilty in the second degree. Danny showed no emotion when the verdict was called.

The judge sentenced Danny to a minimum of eleven years and two months in prison, to be released on his twenty-first birthday. This supposedly lenient sentence was partially due to Danny’s young age.

On April 4th 2016, the very day that Hugh Rollins died in prison, a statement involving Danny’s life in prison was released to the news media. Danny had a television with a Playstation One in his cell, DVDs of family movies, cooking lessons, music lessons – he was talented on the flute – and gym lessons. He was allowed to work in the library and had a 4.0 GPA.

There was outrage over whether a young psychopath should have this while his brother is dead in the ground.

His parents’ sentences were compared to his own. Ten years each for obstruction of justice. They were both released in 2015. Bill Lancaster was sentenced to eight years as an accessory after the fact. He killed himself in his cell in 2012.

Hugh Rollins and Danny Murphy were very different people with completely different backgrounds. Yet both of them turned out to be psychopaths and murderers. I have no doubt that if Danny is released then he will kill again. Hugh Rollins, meanwhile, will never face justice for other lives that he took.

Unfair doesn’t even begin to describe the sad case.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentions of cannibalism.
> 
> I know I said that I would make the next chapters reasonably better? It turns out that I lied. The only accurate age I have is for Sheryl Timmons. I'm not planning on watching this episode again for a while.
> 
> Between this and _South Park_ , I am never eating chill again.

Floyd Feylinn Ferell

Some of the vilest criminals take part in what is considered the greatest taboo across all human cultures since the end of the Stone Age; cannibalism.

As with Jeffrey Dahmer (see pages 47-52), Floyd Feylinn Ferell appeared to be a normal-looking man, one that nobody would suspect to be a vicious abductor, murderer and cannibal who dismembered his victims and preserved them.

Floyd was born on May 4th 1970 in Florida. When he was seven years old he was sent to the Hazelwood Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Floyd was placed on medication and was made to take part in art therapy. His therapy included Francisco Goya’s Black Paintings, which appear to have had a remarkable and lasting effect on young Floyd.

While he was released from the psychiatric hospital at the age of eighteen in 1988, doctors still considered him a threat to others. Exactly why Floyd was released then is uncertain. This story has happened far too many times to comprehend, even now.

It is unknown as to when Floyd stopped taking his medications. He told law enforcement after his arrest that these medications caused him to gain weight.

By 1995, Floyd had dropped the ‘Ferell’ from his surname and opened a BBQ restaurant called Feylinn’s Fine Bar-B-Q in Bridgewater, FL. As with his medication, it is not known when he started murdering prostitutes.

Prostitutes, like homeless people, are easy targets for serial killers. Their disappearances are unlikely to be reported and if they are, the police do not tend to focus much on the ‘unwanted dregs of society’. When a prostitute is killed, it might not just be because they are seen as disposable. At times it may be because the Unsub has a religious agenda, seeing himself as a street cleanser. This avenue of thought can sometimes be the reasoning behind homeless people, although prostitutes are more likely to be the victim of this type of Unsub.

However, we do know that Floyd had killed at least ten prostitutes prior to February 2007. There may have been more, but these specific victims were definitely linked to Floyd. The large gaps between the first few victims is not a surprise either. Serial killers sometimes have gaps of months or years between their first and second victims and this tends to decrease between later kills.

**Keira Eckman** , 23, Tampa, c. 28th December 1996.  
 **Jill Quader** , 40, Tampa, c. 22nd September 1998.  
 **Megan Gettler** , 19, Clearwater, 2nd September 2000.  
 **Samantha Narris** , 30, Tampa, March or April 2001.  
 **April Yorkers** , 44, Lakeland, c. 28th May 2002.  
 **Cecilia Baquerizo** , 32, Clearwater, December 2003.  
 **Flora Marcias** , 37, Lakeland, c. 11th September 2004.  
 **Delia Gamarra** , 29, Tampa, c. 16th September 2005.  
 **Jada de Aguirre** , 24, Clearwater, 20th September 2005.  
 **Rita Tamayo** , 27, Tampa, 17th December 2006.

As you can see, only three of the ten victims have confirmed dates of disappearance. There is also a sense of sporadic behaviour, as the gap between the deaths of Flora Marcias and Delia Gamarra is little over a year, but Floyd murdered Jada de Aguirre less than a week later. It is safe to assume that at this point Floyd had uncovered his chosen modus operandi and could ‘hone his craft’ so to say.

It was in 2007 that Floyd caught the BAU’s attention. **Maria Lopez** , 36, was abducted from Tampa sometime in early February and her body was placed inside Floyd’s freezer. The body was discarded in a local church on November 12th. Why Floyd chose to do so is a strange factor in his method of madness. He had not done this before. But it allowed us to find him.

**Abby Kelton** , 28, was abducted on November 9th. As some of his previous victims’ fingers had been fed to Abby, as discovered during her autopsy, we can safely come to the conclusion that Floyd had done this with his other victims. His freezer would have allowed the parts to stay fresh during the long periods between kills.

**Tracey Lambert** , 23, was a different move for him. She was abducted from a public restroom on November 11th. Maybe Floyd had decided to become a little bolder and therefore careless. Maybe he had noticed the fuss emerging concerning the missing prostitutes. Whatever the case, Floyd took Tracey from a restroom in Bridgewater and killed her early the next morning.

During the search for Tracey, one of the participants, **Sheryl Timmons** , 31, went missing. Floyd had been at the search, providing his chilli. Chilli that later turned out to contain the remains of Tracey Lambert.

We found Sheryl in Floyd’s walk-in freezer at his house. We also discovered several books on Satanism and images of the Black Paintings. Floyd refused to talk to anyone except a local priest who had been assisting us. When the priest told Floyd during the interrogation that God is in all of us, Floyd is reported to have smiled and answered, “So is Tracey Lambert.”

It is possible that by Tracey’s abduction Floyd had started to spiral out of control. He may have taken victims after then who were not prostitutes. There is no concrete evidence that he had served victims to customers, but the idea cannot be ruled out. Who knows what he would have done if he was not caught then.

But the fact that all of this could have been avoided is a sad statement that I have heard many times throughout my career.

Floyd was institutionalized a second time, after being found criminally insane. He is still in a mental facility.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for being so late; I have been mentally exhausted in these last few weeks.

Ben ‘Cy’ Bradstone

Most kind people look at the mentally and physically disabled with pity. They assume that just because they have something holding them back that they are to be babied and need constant supervision, if not outright feared thanks to slasher movies or urban legends. While it depends on the person themselves, the circumstances and which specific disability when it comes to around-the-clock care, the fact remains that the majority of disabled people involved in violent crime tend to be the victims, often involving neglect. But anybody can use stereotypes to their advantage, even those with a disability.

For an easier example, I ask you to picture a spider and a fly. You probably imagined the housefly and the house-spider, two of the most stereotypical insects. That particular genus of spider could easily eat a half-inch housefly. But a spider can be incredibly tiny, about the size of a toddler’s fingernail. That sort wouldn’t stand a chance against a housefly. And there are also enormous spiders lurking in the wild (my colleague informed me that the world’s largest spider is the Goliath birdeater, whose legs can reach up to one foot in length) who wouldn’t even glance at a housefly as a full meal.

The point I am making is that we should not let appearances – or fear of reacting in a way that may be perceived as bigotry – take over our common sense. Also, if I used an example using humans then this book might not have been published.

Ben Bradstone was born in Oklahoma on 25th November 1970. He was brought up in the small town of Durant and it was here that his crime spree was circulated. His family nicknamed him ‘Cy’.

His parents, Donna and Michael Bradstone, were both deceased by 2011, when Cy was brought to our attention. Cy did not receive enough oxygen at birth and also had a damaged frontal lobe, which caused him to be developmental disabled as he grew up. As you would expect, Cy was frequently bullied, which was not helped by his lack of personal hygiene.

Cy’s brother Matt (born 1968) would later tell the FBI that Cy attended a homecoming party with him in 1985. One of the girls at the party, Lyla Smith, would later go on to marry Matt. However, in 1987, Cy had a crush on Lyla. At the party they, as most teenagers did at the time, played a game of Spin the Bottle. By chance, when it was Lyla’s go, the bottle landed on Cy.

One can only imagine what Cy must have felt at that moment. The outcast, shunned and overweight teenage boy had the opportunity to kiss possibly the most attractive girl at his school during a party. While nothing went beyond going into a closet and kissing, the event had already imprinted itself onto him.

Cy started following Lyla around at their school but ceased when he overheard Lyla telling a friend that she found him unattractive. This must have broken Cy’s heart and is highly likely the reason that all of his victims were made to wear clothing that dated from the 1980s, the decade he and his brother were in school.

Lyla had blonde hair at the time she had seemingly rejected Cy. The fact that his future victims were all blonde women bears a remarkable similarity with the theory that Ted Bundy killed women who resembled his girlfriend (although in my opinion this is untrue, as long dark hair parted in the middle was a fashion statement in the early 1970s).

After he left high school, Cy became a mechanic in Durant. He would frequently lie to his higher-ups about why he was late or wanted days off. It seems that lying was a habitual trait with Cy Bradstone. He was also fired for stealing parts.

In 1989, Cy was caught breaking into one of the auto shops he had worked at. With his disability taken into account, he was sentenced to six months in a halfway house. In April 1990 he began travelling around the neighboring counties in an RV. Cy would come home on occasion to his parents and brother in Durant. He would stay for a few days or weeks at a time. In 1992 Matt married Lyla Smith. As we can imagine, Cy would have felt unparalleled rage when his brother – inadvertently – had taken the woman whom Cy had perceived as his girlfriend. The marriage would go on to produce two children.

The first victim to catch the FBI’s attention was nineteen-year-old **Abby Elcott** , who had been taken from a bus stop on September 24th 2011. She was kept alive for two days, before being blinded with sulfuric acid stolen from an auto shop and then killed. There is evidence that she was also raped during this time. Abby’s body was found in an alley the evening she was killed.

The next victim to die was seventeen-year-old **Beth Westerley** , also taken from a bus stop on September 28th, only two days after Abby’s murder. Her scarf was found by the stop later that day. Her body was found in a field the next day.

It seems that by this point Cy’s anger was spiraling out of control. This is not unexpected since serial killers tend to space out their earlier victims and the gaps between victims become shorter as time goes on. Dennis Nilson (pages 78-85) murdered his second victim ten months after his first, but there were only two months between his two final kills. As such, we began to assume that Cy was killing some years prior to 2011.

His final murder was of **Sarah Van Pells** , 20, also from a bus stop in Mead, on September 29th. Her burned body was recovered the next day in an alley.

The FBI were on the case at this point and had started to summarize that our killer could have been obsessed with the 1980s due to the fact that his victims were dressed in clothing from that time period. We made an educated guess that he most likely remembered said era and was therefore around forty years old or older.

When the final victim, **Tammy Bradstone** , 17, disappeared on September 30th, we were puzzled. She had been attending a party and had walked away while possibly drunk. The circumstances to the other murders were so different but happened in the same general vicinity. To add to our confusion, Tammy was not a blonde. But we found blonde hair dye in her wastepaper bin at her house.

I began to wonder if perhaps Tammy was the killer’s target the whole time. If she had gotten into a car without trying to cause attention to herself, it was exceedingly likely that Tammy knew the killer, or thought she did.

After questioning her parents, we uncovered Cy and his obsession with Tammy’s mother Lyla. When we heard that Tammy had been wearing the same prom dress that her mother had done, we were certain we had our man.

We managed to bring Cy into custody and questioned him, finding Tammy alive at his secondary location. It was at this location, a cabin isolated from the outside world, where he would videotape his victims being taped to a chair and tortured with sulfuric acid.

The exact number of Cy’s victims is estimated at around twenty, although some investigators believe the total to be as high as forty. I believe the number is twenty-three; the number of tapes we found and other cases that were noted as being similar. If we believe that Cy documented every one of his kills then the number still stands at twenty. However, three of the cases I will mention are similar enough to his modus operandi to include here.

Here is a list of victims we eventually linked to Bradstone. As you will see when reading this list, some of the unfortunate women and girls have not been found. Some have not even been identified as of 2016.

**April Weaver** , 17, Bennington, July 1993 – April ran away from her family in Bennington on July 15th 1993. Her body was found in a field outside Ravenna on August 4th. She was identified eight months later. The earliest videotape that was recovered was labeled ‘April’ and she was identified by her parents.

**Arleen Platt** , 14, Antlers, September/October 1996 – Arleen left her home in Antlers (situated outside a bus stop) on September 1st 1996. She was originally listed as a runaway. When her body was found on October 4th in a field near Jumbo the medical examiner said that her eyeballs had been burnt away. A videotape that was recovered was labeled ‘Arleen’.

**Crystal Padmore** , 21/22, Durant, April/May 1999 – A prostitute, Crystal was reported missing when she failed to show up for a custody hearing of her two children on May 2nd, the day after her birthday. Her body was recovered from an alley on May 8th. Her hand was found to have been burnt. A videotape that was recovered was labeled ‘Crystal’.

Mona Bissett, 16, Ardmore, August 26th 1999 – Mona was last seen at a bus stop going to school when she was seen talking to a confused man in his twenties. She appeared to be giving him directions. Mona has not been seen since. The modus operandi used by Cy was to trick women into letting their guard down due to his obvious handicap and a videotape that was recovered, while not labeled with a name, was dated 8/99 and showed a girl with some resemblance to Mona. As such, I am confident in naming her as a victim, even if she has not been confirmed.

**Felicity Ruggles** , 18, Atoka, April 28th 2000 – A runaway, Felicity made a phone call from Atoka on the evening of April 28th. She agreed to come home and was currently living in a bus shelter. She was not at the shelter come morning. Felicity’s body has never been found, but a videotape labeled ‘Felicity’ was recovered and the girl in the video had a revealing tattoo matching one found on Felicity.

**Fern Benn** , 21, Durant, January 10th 2001 – A prostitute, Fern had visited her mother’s that morning and was due to see her younger brother the following day, but never arrived. Her family said that Fern would never miss an opportunity to see her brother. Fern’s body was found in a copse of trees outside Durant on January 27th. She was found wearing clothing that was not hers. A videotape was recovered that was labeled ‘Fern’.

**Deirdre Jeanes** , 19, Durant, c. December 7th 2002 – A prostitute, Deirdre was released from custody for solicitation on December 7th 2002. Her body was found by the shores of Lake Texoma on Boxing Day. She was dressed in clothing that was not her own. A videotape that was recovered was labeled ‘Deirdre’.

**Thelma** , June 2003 – An unknown woman from a videotape labeled ‘Thelma’ and dated 6/03 was recovered from the collection. She is estimated to have been between fourteen and eighteen years old in 2003. While Cy’s tendency to lie has compromised the case, he eventually admitted that she had said she was from either Chicago or St. Louis. Her body was found in Platter in 2013.

**Pamela Gladwin** , 15, Hugo, May 15th 2004 – Pamela was last seen at a bus stop as she came home from buying a birthday present for her younger sister. Her body was found outside Hugo three days later. She had been alive for two days and her cause of death was later revealed as having been sulfuric acid poured down her throat. A videotape that was recovered was labeled ‘Pamela’.

**Toni** , February 2005 – An unknown woman from a videotape labeled ‘Toni’ and dated 2/06 was recovered from the collection. She is estimated to have been between fourteen and twenty years old in 2005. Her body was found in Platter in 2013.

Rebecca Savage, 17, McAlester, August 29th 2006 – Rebecca was last seen being dropped off at her school bus stop. Her younger brother, then eleven, said he ran ahead and had gone around the corner, waiting for her to catch up. He waited a few moments before coming back around and found that she had gone. He said that he saw an RV out of the corner of his eye during the original investigation, but this has not been confirmed. The similarities to Mona Bissett’s case drew the attention of Oklahoma State Police and it is believed that the two cases are connected. However, unlike Mona, Rebecca’s body was found three years later by a riverbank outside Atoka. Scraps of denim clothing were found underneath what remained of her body.

**Virginia Kimball** , 16, Duncan, July 29th 2007 – Virginia was last seen at a bus stop outside the mall where she worked. Her handbag was found in the bushes a few yards away. Her body has not been recovered, but a video labeled ‘Virginia’ was found in Cy’s collection. Her family identified Virginia from the footage.

**Phoebe Bonner** , 20, Marietta, April 2008 – A prostitute, Phoebe was last seen in early April 2008 trying to hitch a ride. She was found two months later in a field by Lake Texoma. She was wearing clothes that dated from the 1980s. Phoebe was identified in 2014. While this would normally be outside of Cy Bradstone’s modus operandi, the fact that she was near a bus stop was reason enough to list her as a possible victim. A video recovered from Cy’s collection was labeled ‘Phoebe’ and she was identified by her family. Before Phoebe’s identification, Texoma Doe (as she was named) was suspected to have been a victim due to her clothing.

**Julia Harrell** , 14, c. February 9th 2009 – Julia Harrell ran away from her foster home in Oklahoma City on February 9th 2009. Her disfigured body was found in an alley in Durant on July 29th 2009. Her cause of death was unknown and she was dressed in 1980s clothing. She was reported missing the following month and identified in 2015. When Cy’s collection had been confiscated, a videotape labeled ‘Julia’ was recovered. The girl in the tape was later identified as Julia. On first viewing, the victim was estimated to be between fourteen and sixteen years old.

**Anna Gibbs** , 19, Davis, September 2009 – Anna was a prostitute living on the streets when she was last seen in Davis in September 2009. She was not reported missing by her family until March 2012. A videotape recovered from Cy’s collection, labeled ‘Annie’, was shown to her family, who said they believed it could be her. Anna’s body was found in Platter in 2013.

**Mandy Prescott** , 17, c. November 14th 2009 – Mandy ran away from McKinney, TX on November 14th 2009. Her body was found, dressed in clothing that was not hers and her face burnt with what was later determined to be sulfuric acid, on a dirt road outside Bokchito, OK on Thanksgiving, twelve days later. She had been dead for at least a week. Mandy was identified two weeks later by her parents. A videotape recovered from the collection was labeled ‘Mandy’.

**Leslie Pickle** , 15, Mead, March 8th 2010 – Leslie Pickle had run away from her house in Mead on March 8th 2010. Her body was found by the shores of Lake Texoma near Platter three days later. She had been deceased for roughly twenty-four hours when she was found. Although she was found in clothing that was not her own and she had been killed by swallowing sulfuric acid, police labeled her death as not suspicious. They changed their minds once Cy Bradstone was arrested. Leslie’s foster home was on the same street where Sarah Van Pells would later be kidnapped. A videotape was found in Cy’s collection labeled ‘Lesley’ and she was identified from the footage by her foster family.

**Megan** , October 2010 – A videotape labeled ‘Megan’ and dated ‘10/10’ was found in Cy’s collection. Cy said that he ‘picked up a lady in a pink dress’ in Ada that year. Experts viewing the footage said that she appeared to be at least sixteen. She also had a number of tattoos and possible needle punctures along her arm. She has never been identified or found.

Milly Leavitt, 18, Durant, January 2nd 2011 – Milly was reported as a runaway in Durant on this date. She had run away from home several times before. She has never been found. However, her blonde hair, age, proximity to the Bradstone household and a nearby bus stop have lead me to include her on this list.

**Jacquelyn Wallace** , Ada, 22, c. April 21st 2011 – A prostitute, Jacquelyn was due to meet her parents for a custody hearing when she failed to show up. A videotape labeled ‘Jackie’ was found in Cy’s collection. Her body was found in Platter in 2013.

**Sidney Aitkin** , 16, Durant, August 16th 2011 – Sidney had run away from her home six weeks prior to this date. Her date of abduction is listed as August 16th as this was the day her body was found in a field outside Durant. However, she had been tortured beforehand and it is estimated that she had in fact been kidnapped a day prior to her murder. A videotape labeled ‘Sidney’ was recovered from Cy’s collection.

**Gillian Symonds** , 21, Durant, August 27th 2011 – Gillian Symonds, a prostitute, was reported missing on August 28th when another prostitute said she didn’t turn up. Gillian’s disappearance was not taken seriously, but when her body was found later that day in an alley, her case was listed as suspicious.

Cy has been questioned over the past five years about these murders. He refused to say much, but did say that she had ‘put four of those girls next to each other and nobody ever found them’. While the investigation was being undertaken by Oklahoma State Police, Cy’s lawyer was trying to argue that due to Cy’s mental defect, he should not be sentenced to death. After a lengthy trial in July 2013, Cy was instead received five sentences of life imprisonment, for the five murders the FBI connected him to in the original investigation.

Just a week after his sentencing there was more news. Some people picking up garbage by Lake Texoma had found four skeletons, each only a few yards apart, in the long grass. Oklahoma State Police spent weeks assessing the bones. Since all four victims were clothed, this made the job a lot easier than it would have been if the victims were not and would have had their remains further scattered by animals.

The clothing on two of the bodies matched ‘Thelma’ and ‘Toni’ from the videotapes. By the end of 2013, Anna Gibbs and Jacquelyn Wallace were identified by DNA and dental records.

As of this date, Cy has not been prosecuted for these four deaths. No reason has been given as to why, since Anna and Jacquelyn were identified on video in his possession, but I believe it has something to do with his mental capacity.

When I contacted the rest of the Bradstone family, I found that Matt and Lyla had divorced under the strain of what Cy had done to them. The two children continue to live with Matt, Lyla having refused custody for unknown reasons.

Cy Bradstone remains in prison and will likely be there for the rest of his life. Considering the ‘help’ he had been given throughout his life, it is sad to say that this is probably an improvement.


End file.
